This invention relates in general to apparatus for cleaning bristled structures and deals more particularly with a machine for cleaning bristle pads of the type used in a bristle bed for a sheet material cutting apparatus or the like. In a cutting apparatus of the aforedescribed general type a bristle bed is utilized to provide a material supporting surface which will withstand repeated penetration by a cutting instrument without substantial damage and which may comprise a part of a vacuum holddown apparatus for firmly holding a layup of sheet material in fixed position on the supporting surface and compacting the layup. When such an apparatus is used to cut a fibrous material, such as a layup of fabric, residue from the cutting operation, which comprises lint, dust and small threads, tends to accummulate between the bristles of the bed. Vacuum applied to the bed further tends to firmly lodge this foreign material between the bristles. Accummulation of foreign material within the bed substantially reduces its vacuum holddown efficiency and wastes energy. In order to maintain the holddown efficiency of the bed, the bristle pads which comprise the bed must be periodically cleaned. Heretofore, such bristle beds have been cleaned by blowing accummulated scrap material from between the bristles or sucking it out of the bed or the individual pads which comprise the bed by applying vacuum to the material supporting surface or to the lateral surfaces defined by the bristles. However, such cleaning procedures are time consuming and have proven generally unsatisfactory.
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide an apparatus for rapidly and efficiently removing foreign material lodged between the bristles of a bristled structure such as a bristle pad or the like.